Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!hercules!sparkyfs!usasoc.soc.mil!aero!QUCDN.QueensU.CA!ROPERK
From: ROPERK@QUCDN.QueensU.CA
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Girls, girls, girls
Message-ID: <90255.141840ROPERK@QUCDN.BITNET>
Date: 12 Sep 90 18:18:40 GMT
References: <1990Aug27.193416.19394@tc.fluke.COM>
 <24693@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> <6290@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>
 <11927@chaph.usc.edu>
Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Lines: 37
Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Status: R


       The "belittling" thing about the word "girl" is that it
        implies a lack of maturity (in just about any sense of
        the word).  I find it offensive for this reason, and for
        its association with the North American preoccupation
        with the barely-pubescent female physique (somehow this
        conflicts with the NA fascination with overly large breasts,
        unless one considers that they're both *extremes*).

       And yes, I find the improper application of the word "boy"
        equally offensive.  I use it as such, eg. the "old boys'
        network", and thus I rarely use it at all.

       Elaborating on an earlier post: I don't find "lady" demeaning
        in an SCA context because it has been stripped of condescension.
        It doesn't bother me when used as in "Ladies and Gentlemen",
        since it is an attempt at a polite, not belittling, address.
        In most other contexts I find it insulting to my intellect.

       I don't mind being called Kim, though %>

-------
Kim Roper
Dept of Chem Eng, Queen's University

Bitnet/Netnorth: roperk@qucdn.queensu.ca

Most of the clowns just walked past as if nothing had happened.
  Occasionally one would trip on a piece of debris, and growl
  at the naked faces.  They stared back apologetically, much like
  a puppy named "Piddles" does.  It was an abdication of power
  they didn't know they could accept, since they didn't understand
  the equivalence of the currencies of "power" and "responsibility",
  and the natural exchange of the two.  The clowns merely didn't
  care to think about it.

                                --- The Metropolitan Circus